almost effortless

Things I have looked at today, including an explanation of the "when it rains it pours" Morton salt advertisments I have seen. This is from an interview with an advertising guy.

Brands that succeed are those that can charge a premium over competing brands, or that can dominate a category by virtue of the brand. Morton Salt is a good example. Salt is a commodity, it would seem, except that most people prefer Morton. Why? Because of the story of the little girl walking home from the store in the rain, with the salt pouring out of the container. "When it rains," it pours, is the tagline, meaning that Morton salt doesn't stick to itself in humid weather. Today, no salt sticks, but we still prefer Morton. That's a successful brand.

Also, this funny bit about the "for dummies" books trying to shut down a parody site.

Never before have I seen or heard of another "Trevor Turk" but today I stumbled across one! I was thinking about emailing him, but I'm sort of scared. I guess he is some sort of computer network guy who lives in Norfolk, you can see the page here. It's so creepy to see that name and know that it isn't me...

Update: Someone here at the NEC informed me that there are actually 4 other "trevor turks" in the UK alone (and that's only those who are over 18, registered to vote, and not in prison) !!!

Being awesome, I've got to have me a Gameboy Advance SP right? It is amazing. I had a regular Gameboy advance before, and I'm assuming that everyone who has/had one knows first hand that the screen was impossible to see. I constantly had to sit at awkward angles in order to see anything at all - and even then, it was hard to make anything out. Plus, I like to be able to sit back and relax in bed or something while I'm playing, and this was just impossible with the regular version. But now...

SP is much better. The frontlighting (I guess it technically is the same screen under there, just with a light surrounding it on the top) is great. Now I can play at any angle, and sit anywhere I want to sit. You can turn the lighting off - but who would want to? I suppose the screen does take on that slight blue color that white lights often add to the screen, but it isn't bad enough to deserve more than a mention. Possibly my second favorite thing about it (after the lighting) is the clamshell design. First of all, SP is TINY. Really tiny. And it is really light (as is not heavy). It is much smaller than the original, and would fit in your pants pocket, I bet. I think I'll be carrying it around a bit more. The auido seems louder, too - and the analogue volume control works pretty much the same way. The L and R buttons look small, but don't fret - they work just fine. I find that I can hold the Gameboy in different grips and still press the buttons with without any trouble.

On the downside, SP has to be charged. That is OK with me, though, because I think it is worth it for the light. Of course I would rather be able to use batteries, or rechargable batteries, but I'm used to charging things like my MP3 player anyway. There isn't a plug for headphones, which is odd. I don't know why that is (must be some engineering thing) but it is annoying. I guess 5 bucks for the adapter isn't going to break the bank, though. The buttons are a bit different, too - they are sort of 'clicky' - probably to let the screen flip down without hitting the buttons. But I actually find them to be more responsive, and I think I like them better.

In the end, I can't believe how much better SP is. Plain and simple. i play it twice as much as I did before. I highly recommend getting one yourself, even if that means trading in your old gameboy. Trust me, its worth it.

I found this article to be very interesting: News.com - Free Content. It suggests that music should serve as free content for companies like Sony to push thier products. For example, Sony is rumored to earn more from player hardware than from its own music division. So maybe they want to provide some free music as an incentive to buy thier walkman? If anybody actually reads this, let me know what you think, ok?

I am pleased to announce that I have a new job! I've been promoted at the National Extension College (link) from "Post Room Support" to "Senior Editor". I am really excited about this new job, since it will allow me to put something decent on my resume (C.V.) for this time period while I am on BUNAC (link). Plus, I think it should be pretty interesting, and probably give me some new skills while taking advantage of the skills I've got... Here is the job description, straight from the folks who hired me:

Study Programmes are currently overhauling the Guide to Courses and associated promotional material.  As part of this process we would like to review and update the product information available to students across different channels.

We would like the help of a senior editor to improve the product information on the web site and in the Course Information Sheets in particular.  This would also involve selecting samples of course materials to make available as online previews.
The role would include:

• Evaluating current information structure and content, and recommending changes
• Re-writing and generating copy for all or most of our 100 + courses
• Checking, correcting and updating information including online content
• Liaising with product development
• Selecting course samples for online preview

The ideal candidate will:

• Be patient and meticulous - there are around 100 courses to cover
• Have great editing skills
• Be a confident writer
• Be able to deal with different sources of information
• Be able to deal with different people within NEC for approvals and sign-off
• Prior knowledge of NEC products and experience of html are advantageous but not requirements.

Update: You can see my handiwork on the live site (link).